History

A woman named Geneva Helton and her husband decided to form an incorporated municipality to get around Denton County's liquor laws. The Heltons bought over of land from a family friend. The two then installed a sewer system and established a liquor store. Corral City incorporated in 1973. Afterwards doublewide trailers and recreational vehicles appeared in the city limits. Candace Carlisle of the Denton Record-Chronicle said that Corral City "prospered" for a decade, but after the early 1990s retirement of Geneva Helton's and the death of her husband, the town, in Carlisle's words, "began a slow decline. Soon, all that remained was a graveyard of rotting doublewides."

According to Carlisle, by 1993 "Corral City looked in every way like a vanquished 'ghost town'." James "Eddie" Draper became the mayor and owner of Corral City. Carlise said that to Draper "it was a boomtown waiting to happen."